The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design

Taking Shape: The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design

admin — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 15:14:37 +0000

Taking Shape: The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design admin Wed, 06/18/2025 - 11:14

The earth is finally beginning to make way for The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design. Earlier this year, what used to be a parking lot at the corner of Ferst Drive and State Street began its transformation to bigger and better things; once completed, The Kendeda Building is expected to become the most environmentally advanced education and research facility in the Southeast.

“Seeing the fencing go up and the grading equipment roll in was a major milestone,” said John DuConge, senior project manager for Facilities Management. “Given the very unique requirements of The Kendeda Building, we knew we would spend a considerable amount of time on the front end designing and planning this project with our project partners: Lord Aeck Sargent and their team of consultants.”

DuConge added that the building is expected to come together rather quickly, with the goal of substantial completion by May 2019. Move-in activities along with the operational ramp-up is expected to commence that summer in preparation for the start of fall semester classes in August.

Site work is scheduled through April to prepare for constructing the basement level, which includes the project’s 45,000-gallon cistern — a key element of the net-positive water requirement. After the foundation is set later this spring, the steel and wood structures will be put in place, giving the building its framework. Other visible installations will include the more than 900 photovoltaic panels that will be installed later this fall and winter.

More Than Just Construction

But designing and constructing the building is really only one aspect of achieving Living Building Challenge 3.1 full certification. Operating and maintaining the building are critical factors, too. So, selecting the appropriate occupants to properly steward the Challenge principles and abide by the strict building operating requirements is equally important.

“The Kendeda Building will be one of only a few Living Building Challenge-certified facilities that will serve such a large group of occupants on a daily basis,” said Michael Gamble, director of Graduate Studies and associate professor for the School of Architecture. “Everyone in the building, including students, staff, and faculty, is responsible for complementing and upholding the basic building principles in how we learn and teach.”

One of The Kendeda Building’s featured programs includes the Global Change Program, which officially launched in March. This new initiative aims to coordinate and grow educational and research activities focused on providing solutions and creating economic opportunities at the intersection of global change, climate change, and energy. The program will be directed by Kim Cobb, ADVANCE professor and Georgia Power Chair in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Early program activities will focus on curriculum design for undergraduates, including creation of an “Energy and Climate” minor and a climate solutions lab.

Gamble further explained that the College of Sciences will take the lead on utilizing the class labs for several core courses (including general ecology), which serve a broad cohort of students. As such, the instructors are refining their teaching methodologies in the labs to accommodate water and energy use requirements.

Along with the College of Sciences, courses from a number of colleges will also be offered in the building including English 1101 and 1102, advanced energy modeling, and vertically integrated projects. In addition, capstone teams will also have space in The Kendeda Building.

As the instructional programming is being developed for when the building opens in Summer 2019, several learning opportunities are already taking place. Last year, the Academic and Research Council announced a campuswide call for proposals for research, teaching, and community-based pilot ventures connected to The Kendeda Building and the Living Building Challenge. Currently, six interdisciplinary research projects are underway:

Workflows and Data Modeling in Support of the Material Sourcing Requirement of the Living Building Challenge - School of Architecture and Digital Design Lab.
Living Building Equity Champions - Office of Institute Diversity.
Biologically Inspired Sustainable Building Design Challenges for Middle School Engineers: Expanding the Educational Reach of the Living Building at Georgia Tech - CEISMC and Center for Biologically Inspired Design.
Documenting the Effects of the Living Building on Biological Diversity and Succession - School of Biological Sciences.
Pilot Project Proposal for Living Building Monitoring Systems - Brooks Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems and School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Living Building Community Crowdsourcing: Developing an Interactive Augmented Reality Viewer to Capture Community Feedback - School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

As these inaugural pilot projects conclude later this year, the Academic and Research Council is working to organize a second round of pilot programs focused on energy. The goal will be to support faculty- and student-led teams in developing innovative and creative solutions that could help address strict energy requirements such as the Living Building Challenge’s net-positive energy standard.

For more information, visit LivingBuilding.gatech.edu and livingbuilding.kendedafund.org.

Summary sentence

The earth is finally beginning to make way for The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design.

Summary

The earth is finally beginning to make way for The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design.

Dateline

Wed, 04/18/2018 - 12:00

Contact

Rachael Pocklington
Institute Communications

Keywords

living Building

The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design

The Kendeda Fund

News room topics

Campus and Community

Earth and Environment

Mercury ID

605268

Source updated

Wed, 06/18/2025 - 11:14

Triple Jacket Amy Stone Leaves Lasting Legacy at Georgia Tech

admin — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 19:56:01 +0000

Triple Jacket Amy Stone Leaves Lasting Legacy at Georgia Tech admin Tue, 12/05/2023 - 14:56

When Amy Stone first arrived on the Georgia Tech campus in 2006 to pursue a bachelor's degree in architecture, she was in awe of her surroundings. Seventeen years later, the soon-to-be triple Jacket and mother of three leaves behind her own stamp on the Institute's future.

While she didn't realize how much time she'd spend at Tech after arriving as a transfer student, Stone knew instantly that she had found a home here.

"I remember driving up to Georgia Tech and just being wowed by the beauty of the campus and its history and feeling like this place was special,” she said. “This green urban campus in the middle of a city has so much to offer. I kept coming back for the quality of the education, and I love to see how the campus has gotten more beautiful, advanced, and innovative by improving upon itself."

Among the transformative projects completed during Stone's time on campus is The Kendeda Building for Innovative and Sustainable Design — a building she had a hand in designing as a member of the project team.

"It's such an honor as a student to be able to put my own thumbprint on this campus that has given me so much. I'm so proud of the outcome and that it can be used as an example, as a learning lab, and an educational opportunity to show this is what sustainability looks like," she said.

As construction crews continue their work on the early stages of Tech Square Phase 3, Stone sees another dream project come to fruition, having worked on the concept phase of the high-rise towers. The Scheller and George Towers will add more than 400,000 square feet of new space for research and collaboration and, to Stone, signify an ongoing commitment to the Institute putting its mission statement into action.

"There is something so ambitious and beautiful about this project, continuing to connect a green, urban campus to these dense buildings that are reaching up and stating to the skyline, 'We are Georgia Tech,'" she said of the towers, which are expected to be completed in 2026.

Stone has seen the campus grow through the years alongside her growing family, which now includes three kids. After completing her first degree, she and her husband, Lorrin, welcomed their first two children. When she returned to Tech to pursue a master's degree in architecture, her children were there to lend a helping hand.

"I was hauling them to student meetings, and they were meeting me in the studio between classes. They have been on campus more times than they recognize, and they are just growing as this campus grows. They have watched me do homework, they have been a part of my group assignments and group calls, and I feel it's only fitting that they are here at Commencement at the final moment with me," she said.

That teamwork played a key role in Stone's final semester of her master's program in 2020, when her backyard became her lab due to the pandemic.

"I built my model for my final project with my son and my daughter breaking bricks and gluing them to the side of a facade," said Stone, who was pregnant with the couple's third child at the time. "I got to bring in small hands to help with projects and explain to them what I was doing and why I was doing it in a way that they don't normally get to see. We learned a lot during the pandemic, but that's what we do at Georgia Tech. We innovate, we learn, we adapt."

Intrigued by the intersection of architecture and business, Stone was drawn to the Scheller College of Business, where she will receive her MBA, bringing an end to her educational journey with her family at her side. After taking time to enjoy the holidays and complete a Half Ironman triathlon, Stone will be teaching an architecture course at Kennesaw State University in the spring.

Subtitle

Amy Stone earned three Georgia Tech degrees over 17 years and had a hand in two transformative projects on campus.

Summary sentence

Amy Stone earned three Georgia Tech degrees over 17 years and had a hand in two transformative projects on campus.

Summary

Amy Stone earned three Georgia Tech degrees over 17 years and had a hand in two transformative projects on campus.

Dateline

Tue, 12/05/2023 - 12:00

Steven.gagliano@gatech.edu

Contact

Steven Gagliano - Institute Communications

Associated importer

Keywords

Georgia Tech Commencement

College of Design

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Scheller College of Business

The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design

Tech Square Phase 3

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Campus and Community

The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design

Taking Shape: The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design

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Triple Jacket Amy Stone Leaves Lasting Legacy at Georgia Tech

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